Remember we are coming from the starting point of me saying I don't believe 1 good season proves they have 'arrived' as an elite team.
Longshots like Moss all of a sudden being better than the guy who flunked out of the league 2 years ago don't really answer to that. Whether Harbaugh is a great is still to proven in the most generous of analysis. Whether a defense stays excellent after 1 excellent year is no guarantee, and the entire discussion about the schedule was you adding it, not me.
I'm not sure what you have added that would be a good argument that they are a proven elite team after 1 good season.
It seems you are creating an argument where once doesn't exist.
Andy, follow along please...
In post #805, which is where I jumped in, you said, "They have to do it more than once for me to believe they are for real." I then responded in post #806, "Reasons *to* think they are for real"...
So what we're discussing is whether the 49ers are "for real". I guess to you that means that they are a "proven elite team". To me it means that they are really good and an upper echelon team. So maybe we're splitting hairs.
And obviously I can't change your mind, but to me, a WR corps of Manningham + Moss + Crabtree is much better than Crabtree + dreck that they had last year. That's an improvement. And they haven't lost anything of significance from last year's team. Your counter-arguments about schedule are not convincing, for reasons I've stated.
Obviously we have no idea what their final record will be next year. They could be *better* and yet go 12-4, if your point about a much harder schedule is true. But there are plenty of reasons to believe that the 2012 49ers will be a terrific football team, whether you find them convincing or not.